Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar Again Levels Charges of Corruption Against the State Government

Mumbai: "The medical education department has done corruption in sanitation to fill the pockets of a particular contractor by cracking the tender process. The medical education department is planning to steal Rs 176 crore in the name of sanitation through an external mechanism. It's a situation where the government can't feed itself. After the ambulance, mobile, and saree scam, there is now a scam in sanitation. The medical education minister has now stepped in after seeing the scams of other ministers. The competition among ministers to clean up the government coffers has now taken off." Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar has again lashed out at the government.  Vijay Wadettiwar said the entire process of issuing tender was illegal and demanded that the process be scrapped.

Wadettiwar today again hit out at the government over the issue of corruption. Mr. Wadettiwar said that the government's intention to clean medical, Ayurveda, dental, and homeopathy colleges and hospitals through external mechanisms is to loot the government coffers. "This is the government's initiative to fill the pockets of certain middlemen by taking away the employment of locals. There is an industry of sabotaging the tender process to benefit a particular contractor and get the minister's compensation.  The process is being implemented by the medical education department to appoint a project consultant without issuing tenders and to give the work directly to the contractor of the choice."

"The medical education department is in the unusual process of requesting certain companies to join the process before the tender is floated. Only 7 days (February 2-7) have been given to conduct the expression of interest and tender process, which also has two consecutive holidays. The pre-bid meeting is scheduled for Feb. 5. The tender has been floated on the 2nd. There is a holiday on February 3 and 4 and a pre-bid meeting on February 5. That means companies that have already been sent letters asking them to join the process. No one but those companies should participate. This is all a travesty," Said Vijay Wadettiwar.

Vijay Wadettiwar has demanded that instead of implementing a joint tender process to employ the locals, the tender process should be implemented at the local level and the government should cancel the illegal process to stop the loot of government money.